


Duel

by IMAgentMI



Category: Red vs. Blue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:54:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7690630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IMAgentMI/pseuds/IMAgentMI
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>North and York square off for training.  Theta comes up with a strategy of his own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duel

Well, this wasn’t going as planned.

North kept his back to the pillar, tried to slow his breathing.  There’s no point in taking cover, really, as his shield was up and would be clearly visible from any point on the floor.  That would have been a poor strategic choice if he was still trying to hide, but any chance of stealth had been long blown.  York had him trapped at the very corner of the simulation floor, behind the only piece of cover left available.  His options had almost run out.    


North leaned into Theta in his mind, and found him distracted. An extra thread of concentration quested out away from his bond with the AI - probing, investigating.  North nudged him, the mental version of clearing his throat to catch his attention, but he was surprised when Theta responded with a brush of calming sensations - a request for patience.   Additional threads of thought joined the first, became a cable as Theta’s idea solidified and then almost immediately North felt a gentle nudge, urging him to move.    


Theta’s trust in North was unshakeable, but was matched easily by North’s own in Theta.  Without wasting time with questions, North stood and strode around the pillar, raising his paint pistol.  Theta had already calculated which direction York would be, but he was surprised to find him within feet of the shield, his own pistol already raised and pointed directly at North.

As soon as he saw York, North felt Theta respond, focusing so intensely on the soldier before them that his bond with North felt strange, weakened.  With no other warning, Theta struck out, and his bond with North rang with the effort.  The suddenness of it made his head spin, but North caught himself before he could actually stagger backwards.  Then several things hit him all at once.

First, York was reeling.  North could see a subtle flicker around York, unnoticeable to anyone else, but to North’s eyes, it was unmistakably Theta.  Also, he could still feel Theta, but distantly, and their bond was caught, buffeted in a storm of confusion that he was shocked to realize was York and Delta.    


“Now!”  North was still stunned enough that he only later realized that Theta had shouted it, instead of directing him in his own head.  The shield abruptly dropped and at the same moment, North squeezed off three shots.  York moved ridiculously fast, undoubtedly with Delta’s help, firing three shots of his own, each connecting with North’s in midair.  The collisions of paint twisted into spiky creations that fell somewhere between shrapnel and art, spinning away from the combatants.  North was charging even before they hit the ground and --  _ like wires he could feel it like wires and tiny hooks connecting grounding something new something else something into his mind and he could feel it feel the  _  -- and ran smack into the shield.  The physical impact was nothing compared to the mental shock as he felt a flood of unfamiliar thoughts in his head, and he realized that whatever Theta had done to York, Delta must have just done to him.  Chaos rushed through him in a completed circuit - Theta to York to Delta to North back to Theta, looping over and over, and his own confusion was adding layers to the surging cacophony building in their thoughts.  

North shook his head muzzily, as though he could somehow physically eject the intruders from his mind.  He brought up his gun, but as he got to his feet, he saw York rolling over, pushing himself to his knees and wondered if he’d hit the shield, too.  North could feel the invisible battle taking place between Theta and Delta, with a speed and ferocity that terrified him, left him feeling slow, stupid and insignificant.  The shield flickered irregularly, in and out of being, following the pulse of the fight.  North’s hand was shaking so hard, he figured that even if the shield stayed down he only had a 50-50 chance of hitting York, even from this distance.  He didn’t pull the trigger.

“You okay?” Adrenaline or no, simulation or no, he had to ask.  This was not what either of them had signed up for today.  York raised his hand, the one without the pistol, luckily.

“Yeah.”  York sounded as though he was fighting the urge to shout - the shared hurricane in their minds was still flooding their senses.  

“Are we going to finish this?”  

“Yeah.”

York was on his feet now and North gave him a moment to pull himself together.  In his mind, North felt the brawling AI become still and separate.  The shield dropped completely and stayed down.

In his head, York counted down for them both.   _Three...two…_

Wait, York did what?

“One.”  It was like an echo - York’s thought in his head and his voice on the air.  North’s stomach sank as he pieced together what York had already figured out, that they had unconstrained access to each other’s minds.  

North’s vision blacked out and was replaced with a cheeky self-portrait of York, blinding him as he felt the sting of paint hitting his armour. As he fell backwards, he felt Theta’s trembling dismay and offered his little AI a wordless apology.  The ridiculous picture distorted and shattered as the sound of York’s shaky laughter grew closer.  As he lay on his back, North watched his friend take a knee next to him and in the last second before the AIs snapped the circuit, North felt the hollowness of the laughter, the anxiety rising through York’s gut, the wariness hooding him as behind his helmet he scanned the edges of the training room, the viewing windows, looking for one face.  Together they waited for the paint to begin to break down.

“Clever move at the end. But you could have given me something a little more appealing to look at instead of your ugly mug.”  

York removed his helmet and gave North a smile that was barely more than a flash of teeth before turning serious.  “Was that your idea?  Or Theta’s?”

“Theta’s.”  There was no way for York to see the look he gave him through his helmet, a look that warned him to choose his next words carefully, but North needn’t have worried.

“Theta!  You figured out how to do that all by yourself?  Hijack the implant?  Man, you got me good!”  York held up his hand and Theta gave him a tiny insubstantial high five, his fingers passing through York’s palm.  “I think we got really lucky.”  York was looking at Theta when he said it, but North knew it was meant for him.  

“I didn’t see anyone. Did you?”

“No.  But two AIs on the practice floor at once?  He will review it for certain.  Delta, could you--” York went silent, his eyes unfocusing for a moment before returning to North.  North attempted to move his arms, and felt the paint breaking apart.  York crushed a chunk with his fist, and pried a piece off North’s shoulder, giving him more freedom of movement.  He offered his hand to North and hauled him up.  

North had removed his helmet and was brushing off the rapidly deteriorating paint that was still left, when he saw the flash of green.  York leaned in and flicked a flake away.  “Delta just sweet-talked FILSS into forgetting the last five minutes or so.  Without her knowing of course.”  Something loosened in North’s chest.  

“That was…”  He didn’t say “terrifying.”  He didn’t say “horrific.”  He didn’t allow himself to even think it.  Living with an AI was one thing - an enemy forcing themselves into your head and wrecking havoc…

“The Director has enough weapons at his disposal,” York said in a low voice.  “We’re not giving him this one too.”  

  



End file.
